Christmas tree off Praying Monk

On 2 January, Thomas and I took the Christmas tree off of the Praying Monk. It was very fun while it was up there, and to be able to see it from my backyard. But, unfortunately the holidays end, and it was time to take it down. We got to the trailhead at 11:00, after having some trouble finding parking at Echo Canyon. I took the gear to the approach pitch, while Thomas found parking and walked up. By the time he go there I had all the ropes ready to go and he was belaying me about 5 minutes after he arrived. Thomas followed and cleaned the pitch.

We walked with our gear up to the base, set up the ropes again, and took a break. A group was rappelling off the Monk and we waited for them. I belayed Thomas double roped, and he led the pitch. He pulled through on the ropes and lowered the tree off of the South Face of the Monk. Then he rappelled down and cleaned the draws from the West Face. After that we took the tree down, lowered it down the approach pitch, and drove to my house. Thomas was a few minutes late to work, but the main thing is that we got the tree down and it is not destroyed. But, taking the tree down sort of quickly came at the cost of having very few pictures. Sorry to disappoint.

Thomas with the tree.

Thomas with the tree.

We think that the tree was a success, and we will put it up again next year. A buddy of ours wants to put other random stuff on the Monk. I want a bouncy castle on the top, but that ain’t gonna happen. Look out for the tree–or other random stuff on the Monk. Until next time, have fun, and stay safe…but not to safe. That would be boring.